Judge, 1908-03-14 · page 6 of 16
Judge — March 14, 1908 — page 6: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains a humorous story about an ambitious burglar whose father was also a criminal. The satire mocks the son's attempt to outdo his father's accomplishments through excessive ambition—he "spread himself" too thin. The joke: The father, wanting all the glory from a bank job, uses **ten times the normal amount of dynamite** in the vault. The explosion is so powerful it destroys the entire bank, traps him inside, and he's immediately caught by police. His over-ambition defeats him entirely. The accompanying cartoons offer lighter humor: one shows a man demonstrating ice-skating to a woman (with predictably chaotic results), and another depicts marine life, labeled "The Marine S.P.C.A." The satire reflects early 20th-century attitudes toward crime fiction and the "ambitious criminal" archetype—poking fun at the notion that excessive zeal, even in criminal enterprise, leads to failure.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
HE SPREAD HIMSELF. Y FATHER was a bur- ghar,” imparted the house thief to his e pun they leisurely went about y the house they ransick had entered and) found “ripest But he di nary run of that craft mt from the he was so terribly ambi In fact, it nervous desire to go ahead tiow and clean up a job that abruptly ended his prom reer ats at high bur- lar w was that?” asked the companion, seraping some her on a sheet. this way. One night, all alone (father wanted all the glory and swag there might be in a job), he slunk out of the house in his gummed shoes and hurried straight to the town bank. Once inside, he drew forth his dynamite, mufile and set to work drilling intes the vault. Father alw er than suited the or- he drilled a regular cave and filled it bulk of dynamite. ‘Then he ap dinary eracksman, with ten times the ordir plicd the mufilers, attached his fuse, lit it, and sprung back into a distant corner of the bank to wait. “ After crouch judged to be suffiei there t r what his nervous temperament ing doing, father 1 nd not n to curse that fuse for 1 1 dead one. He crawled back to- ward the loaded vault-door, and had nearly reached it, when the charge went off What's the matter “T thought | heard a door creak below.” “That's the wind. W meer more sweeping than father had calculated,” resumed the nar. a half bad 1, the result of that explesion was nator, flopping a bureau-drawer onto the floor downside up. “For the jar tore that vault-door from its casing and sent it crashing through the street-wall, ‘This alarmed the watchman, who rushed away for the police. ‘The I in turn, rushed into the bank, and at a glance saw that it was a wreck. Father, you sec, hadn't had a chance to ecape—he was still in the bank. Of course the cops xot him, It was his last job. ace till they'd one?” father was different from the ordinary craft, Where ied with huddling under a partially e+ Hdin't he find a hidin, “Ves; but, as TP said bef ene might: be siti sed wall, or squeezing himself through the hole torn into the he r even winding himself up the twisted and pliant cashier's eaye, father was different.” “Where did they get him, then?” “tn all three places.” MARL e MULIAN, 4} PAPA TEACHES MAMA CTO SKATE HOLDUP ON CTHE ICE wr “New, skate, Mary and don't you dare to } TWO PICTURES FOR THE PRICE OF ONE. ind with his machine isn't > eof a small ‘ THE MARINE SOP CLA, PERSONAL. V WANDS are such peculiar things ' nye tin . ‘They interfere w comicbooks.com